North Korea should grant amnesty to Ling, Lee

New York, July 16, 2009--North Korea should grant amnesty to U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have now been jailed four months following their arrest on the North Korean-Chinese border, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

North Korean border guards arrested
the journalists on March 17 while they were reporting on North Korean refugees for
San Francisco-based Current TV. After closed-door proceedings, they were convicted
on June
8 of entering North
Korea illegally and planning "hostile acts" and
were sentenced to 12 years' labor.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week that
the State Department hoped Ling and Lee would be "granted amnesty through the
North Korean system," according to international news reports.

"Laura Ling and Euna Lee have now spent four months in
detention after their arrest on the job, with limited contact with their
families" CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney said. "We ask that North Korea shows
leniency and let them return home. Their long sentences reflect not the
severity of their own acts, but the political environment in which they were
working."

Ling's sister, Lisa, also an experienced journalist, spoke
with CPJ by telephone this morning. "We are still very distressed by the
absence of Laura and Euna but remain hopeful that a positive resolution can be
reached," she said. "We hope that [North Korea
authorities] respond to the amnesty request from the U.S. government."

Lisa Ling last spoke with her sister on July 7 and said the
journalist sounded "determined." She and Lee are focusing their hopes on the
possibility of clemency from the North Korean government, Lisa Ling told
CPJ.

The journalists' supporters coordinate public activism and
outreach on their behalf through Facebook
and Twitter.CPJ advocacy and coverage of the case is
available here.